Why is this important?

Roghayeh “Mina” Azizi Mirmahaleh is a 60 year old human rights activist scheduled to be deported to Iran on February 28th and currently being held in a detention centre in Laval, Quebec.

As a primary school teacher in Iran, Mirmahaleh campaigned for women’s rights, human rights and free elections. In the 1980s, she was imprisoned with her 11 month old daughter and tortured. In 1988 her husband Ebrahim was executed by the regime along with 20,000 other political prisoners. Throughout the next several years, Mirmahaleh struggled to live her life in Iran, under constant threat from the government.

In 2012, Mirmahaleh came to Canada on a temporary visitors visa obtained by her daughter, a post-doctoral student at McGill University. She applied for refugee status in late 2013 when her visa expired. In 2015, she was found inadmissable. Since her arrival, she has taken part in weekly protests in Phillips Square opposing human rights abuses in Iran. These political actions would put her in further danger should she be deported.

Despite this, the Canadian government has rejected her application for a pre-removal risk assessment, a process intended to ensure applicants are not deported to countries where they would face persecution. The government acknowledges her imprisonment and her husband’s execution but claims there is insufficient evidence that her life would be in danger upon her return to Iran.

On the morning of February 21st, the day after Montreal was symbolically named a “sanctuary city”, Mirmahaleh’s community and supporters rallied in Montreal, demanding that the Canadian government reassess her refugee claim and stop her deportation to Iran, where she faces imprisonment, torture and execution. The rally was planned to correspond with Mirmahaleh’s meeting with the Canadian Border Service Agency in Montreal.

During her meeting, Mirmahaleh was separated from her lawyer and daughter, arrested, and transported to a detention centre in Laval where she is currently being held.

We are calling on Ahmed Hussen, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees, Ralph Goodale, Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the immediate release of Mirmahaleh from the detention centre, and the cancellation of her deportation.
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